White
by Measured
Summary: Only a breath, a step, a move and their hands would meet. He thinks that if he did, Daisuke would take his hand and hold in, a little awkwardly, but with warmth and acceptance. Daisuke/Ken


Title: White  
Series: Digimon 02  
Character/Pairing: Daisuke/Ken  
Rating: PG at most.  
Author's note: I got two prompts that were nearly the same. _Daisuke/Ken - Day in the life of Daisuke showing a different side of him, his feels for Ken, and what he tries to do everyday to make sure Ken's happy_ & _Daisuke/Ken - day in the life, maybe with snow and hot chocolate or maybe homework._ and thus combined them.

**.**

Ken pulls his coat closer around him as he walks. The scarf he's wearing now is a gift from Daisuke's mother. It's rainbow colors and brighter than the blues and greys he'd usually be wearing. Daisuke doesn't seem to notice the cold. He laughs and pushes his gloveless hands through the snow and throws a handful at Ken. It's too fluffy and loose to stick together and make a good snowball. Little flurries of white scatter over him. It catches in his hair and slides off his coat.

Ken laughs too and ducks away, only for Daisuke to tackle him. Daisuke pulls him down into the snowy park and they roll over and over. The snow isn't as good a cushion as it'd seem, and their knees and elbows knock together. There's bound to be bruises, for Daisuke always has bruises. Ken too, but that is more because he bruises easily.

Daisuke is above him, and he wipes the snow from his face.

"I think I won that round," Daisuke says.

"I didn't know we were playing."

"Me neither, not until I started," Daisuke says. He sighs and rubs his hands together to warm them. They're very red now from cold.

"We should head back," Daisuke says, his breath white and warm against Ken's face.

The walk back is cold, and yet peaceful. Daisuke chatters about a lot of things. Soccer, and the things at school that bother him. The stupid dance that all the girls are excited about. Ken listens, only occasionally offering something to the conversation. Daisuke never minds.

By the time they get back, they're both soaked.

"Sheesh, you two! Go get into something warm!" Jun says. She shakes an admonishing finger at them just like a mother would. Daisuke sticks his tongue out at her when he knows she's gone. Even he's smart enough to know to keep his comebacks where she can't hear them.

When they get back to his room, Daisuke pulls off his shirt. Ken turns, yet can still see the definitions in the corner of his eye. Daisuke has grown a lot in the past two years, but Ken is still slim. His shoulders are bony, and his chest lacks the raw muscle Daisuke is developing.

He feels Daisuke's hand at his back.

"Hey, you got more bruises again. You ok? No one's beating up on you, are they?"

Ken doesn't shrink away at the feeling of Daisuke's hand, though a part of him wants to. His skin is cold and clammy, and Daisuke's hands are warm. He must have put them in his jean pockets or run some water on them. Or maybe it was just the warm flow of his blood, as if it were infused with fire and courage and bursting with all of the life of him.

"It's nothing. I just bruise easily," he says.

Without the dark spore, he isn't a masterful player. He's cut off, falls and lacks the former brilliance he once was able to rule the field with. He should really quit. Every time he comes there, the coach looks disappointed to see his former star player fall into such mediocrity.

It's the same expression on all his other teacher's faces.

Maybe he'll fake an injury and simply play with Daisuke for now on. It's not as if he'll ever become a soccer star.

"Well, if they do..." Daisuke says darkly. He punches the air for effect.

Ken smiles despite himself. "I know."

**.**

It's lonely without their companions. After a viral outbreak, the gates to the digital world had to be closed. Most of them still interact through the screen, but it's not the same. According to the ones who have come before them, this always happens. It's a cycle of growing up. Probably the next kids and the ones after them will experience the same thing on and on.

Life, death, loss. It always goes on.

After school he stops before the haka with his brother's name on it. Water would crack the stone now, so he doesn't say anything. He doesn't have a lot to say to Osamu anymore. Maybe one day he'll stop coming here at all and let the ghosts rest. Today is not that day.

He looks up at the flurries falling down from the grey sky and wraps his arms about himself. For warmth, for comfort. When it's so cold that he can't feel his fingers, or the lingering ache inside himself, he goes home. The door closes silent, behind him. His parents are gone for the day.

**.**

"White day is coming, you know. I bet you have tons to give," Daisuke says.

Ken smiles apologetically. Before he easily could have refused them. Now...not so much.

"I'm trying to get job to help pay for all the thank yous. Next year I'll have to buy in bulk and start making it weeks ahead."

"You could always just say you have someone," Daisuke says. He fiddles with his bag unnecessarily.

Ken pauses at this. "I could..."

"Just sayin'. It's a dumb idea anyways, like all my other ones," Daisuke says goodnaturedly

"For dumb ideas, they sure got us out of a lot of close calls," Ken says. He taps Daisuke on the shoulder, for he has never been quite able to emulate the boyish, shoulder clapping coarseness that Daisuke is known for. That doesn't stop him from trying.

"Yeah, I was lucky," Daisuke says with a grin.

More than that. Daisuke is a good person, through and through. He's rash and coarse, rough and lacking in tact, but Ken doesn't mind.

"Very lucky," Ken says.

**.**

Ken gathers his things after a day of mediocrity. A girl waits for him and his locker. Her hands are shaking as she holds the envelope. Her cheeks are flushed, and she seems almost on the verge of tears.

"Um...please accept this," she says.

He's seen her in class before. A shy girl who can barely speak up in class. She treads the line between mousy and beautiful, with her glasses and silky black hair. Another girl who loves the old him, the facade, he thinks.

He tries to think of a way to let her down easily. It's probably taken her a long time to get up the courage for this. The old him would have relished tearing that down. He's thankful that side doesn't exist anymore.

"Thank you for your kindness....but I'm sorry, there's someone special to me already," he says.  
She bows her head to hide her tears, as if she knew this would be inevitable.

It comes to him as he packs his things that it wasn't a lie.

**.**

"Did you have a lot of gifts to return?" Ken asks. Daisuke pulls out his pencil and bites at the eraser in a way that he usually saves for particularly hard math problems.

"My sister and Hikari," Daisuke mutters. Ken laughs, but not in meanness. It's just that Daisuke's expression causes laughter to bubble up in him. It happens instinctively around Daisuke. There, he unfurls and cannot keep things so hidden even if he wants to.

"Hey, not everyone can get all the ladies like you do!"

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd be much more popular," Ken says.

"Really?" Daisuke says, eager for praise.

"Of course. You're on the soccer team. Don't girls like that?"

"I guess," Daisuke says. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Daisuke slips something out from his pocket. Daisuke passes a bit of white chocolate. It's treacly sweet, and heart-shaped.

"You gave me chocolate last time, remember?"

"I was just sharing...friends do that," Ken says. He bits his lip, and hopes the remnants cold masks the slight flush in his cheeks. He remembers making it himself. Heart shaped seemed been too trite, too _romantic_. It felt like an overture of something he wasn't ready to admit.

They lay out on his bed, each facing different directions. Ken is near the wall, which is covered with posters of soccer stars. Daisuke is almost leaning off the edge, with one leg already dangling over the side.

"How are you going to spend the rest of today?"

"Studying, probably," Ken says. He doesn't mention the haka with his brother's name on it, nor the rows of stone feathered in snow today.

"That's so boring. Studying day in and day out...gah. I can't take it."

"It has to be done, though. Otherwise I'll never pass. College will be even harder," Ken sighs.

Daisuke groans. "Stupid college with their stupid rules."

Daisuke leans back and sighs as well. Something serious comes over him. For a moment, Ken thinks he will talk about the impending future, and how lonely it will be to leave everyone behind.

He doesn't, however.

"Is everything alright with you? I saw you hanging around a cemetery for a long while...I wasn't following you or anything. I just saw you when I was out with the team."

"Oh..." Ken says.

"I was going to go say something, but you seemed like you wanted to be alone. Then I got called away." Daisuke rubs at his own cheek with a trace of awkwardness. "You know you can always talk to me."

"I know," Ken replies.

He knows that Daisuke will fight for him, even if he doesn't deserve it. Isn't that what he did before, when no one else would trust him?

"Never forget it, ok?"

"I won't," he says.

And he knows that he wasn't lying when he refused the confession. All this time, there's been someone there who was special to him. As he lays there, his hand and Daisuke's hands almost touch. Only a breath, a step, a move and their hands would meet. He thinks that if he did, Daisuke would take his hand and hold in, a little awkwardly, but with warmth and acceptance.

One day he will tell Daisuke, tell him all of it. But for now he just sits back on Daisuke's bed with the treacly taste of white chocolate still on his tongue.


End file.
